


Mukuro|Nagito Wolf

by StudentOfEtherium



Series: Monoganronpa [7]
Category: Bakemonogatari, Dangan Ronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc, Super Dangan Ronpa 2
Genre: Alternate Universe - Non-Despair (Dangan Ronpa), F/M, Oshino Ougi Being Oshino Ougi, Telepathy, Wolves, heteros are never allowed to ask me for anything again in my life after this
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-09
Updated: 2021-03-09
Packaged: 2021-03-15 18:00:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,546
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29937246
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StudentOfEtherium/pseuds/StudentOfEtherium
Summary: Mukuro stumbles across a wolf one day before school. Not much longer, she learns another student at her school had the same experience. Now, the two of them are connected in ways they don't understand, thrusting their lives in a direction neither could have predicted.
Relationships: Hanekawa Tsubasa/Komaeda Nagito, Ikusaba Mukuro/Naegi Makoto
Series: Monoganronpa [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1918303
Kudos: 3





	Mukuro|Nagito Wolf

She woke up early. The moon was low in the sky and the sun had not yet risen. She dressed quickly in loose-fitting clothes and left without eating. Her house was on a hill, but only about half the way up, so as she departed, she turned west, towards the top of the hill, and started running. She passed by familiar buildings as she took a path that had long since become familiar. This routine was something she was so used to that if she so desired, she could run it blindfolded. It had rained overnight and while it had been light, it hadn’t dried. It wasn’t long before she was done and back home. She removed her workout wear and took a shower. It wasn’t a long shower, as she was efficient with her time. The house’s water heater was far less, and she chose to take as little time as possible to keep as much as possible for her sister. Following the shower, she dressed up in her school uniform and walked downstairs. She started preparing breakfast for two and once it was in a state that could be left alone, she walked back upstairs and knocked on the other bedroom. After a quiet shout and a knock on the door, she opened and entered, making no effort to quiet herself. She gave one light shake, and then another, before giving up and giving the roughly human-shaped pile of blankets a strong push. When even that failed, she gave up and started to pull the mass of the bed. It wasn’t until fabric met floor that the inhabitant showed signs of life. She protested, but her assailant showed indifference, instead informing her of the time restrictions in place. With a quick mention of food, she left, leaving her twin on the floor. She returned downstairs and finished the meal, then went about setting it and preparing the table. The sounds of a running shower found their way downstairs, but before long it shut off and not much longer, the sister, now considerably more gathered, came down. She sat at the table and began to eat. Her pace was slow, as she took the time to do her makeup as well. As such, her sister was done before her. Said sister used the time she had waiting for the other to finish to prepare their school bags. By the time both were done, they were ready to go. With still a generous amount of time left before school began, the pair left.

The pair walked slowly along their usual path. School wasn’t far away, but they walked slowly and had a tendency of getting sidetracked. That thankfully happened little on this morning and the pair quickly found themselves standing before their school. The younger sister departed, off to cause problems or talk to friends, while the older stayed on her own. She didn’t have friends to spend time with. Instead, she entered the school and walked to the roof. Already, the sun was climbing in the sky and the August heat was making itself known, but a breeze was rolling across the roof and the two evened out. Mukuro found herself with little to do, so instead she gazed down at the nearby river and the stream of students heading towards the building.

As she looked around the school and surrounding area from her high vantage point, there was something that caught her eye. Something that made her immediately get up and bolt down the stairs. It didn’t take her long before she was on the ground floor, making her way towards what she had seen. It wasn’t long before she found herself several hundred feet away, standing in front of a large wolf, at least as tall as her.

She did her best to catch her breath as she stared at the wild animal. If it had intent to harm her, it didn’t show it. It just stood there. If it had noticed Mukuro, it didn’t make it immediately obvious. Still, she didn’t want to provoke it, so she stayed still, even trying to minimize her breathing. She started backing herself out of the situation, towards the school. However, as if the wolf noticed her, it turned its gaze. Mukuro found herself growing more tense as her concern grew. Despite that, she didn’t perceive a desire to attack her from the creature.

She backed several steps further away. The wolf followed, taking as many steps as she did, but covering more ground due to its size. Now it was only a few feet away from her and Mukuro knew that if she were to retreat any more, it would be on top of her.

Suddenly, it turned its head. An immaterial voice rang out. “Another?” With that, the wolf ran off, in the direction of the school. Mukuro’s breath caught and she quickly turned around, running for the building. However, she quickly grew to doubt her judgement. The wolf couldn’t have ran in that direction, because it was nowhere to be seen.

She collapsed on the ground. Even for someone with as much exercise and training as she, an experience like this was exhausting. She picked herself up and returned to the school, making her way back up the stairs until she was on the roof again. Her bag was where she had left it; however, now there was someone else, sitting near it. Mukuro breathed a sigh of relief and waved. “Hey Naegi.” He waved back. “Hey Ikusaba.” She stumbled over and collapsed next to him, before leaning over and going limp against his shoulder. “Something up?” Mukuro turned her head slightly, trying to look at him from her odd angle. She groaned, before responding, “Oh, just… I don’t really know. Been a weird morning.” Makoto nodded. “Figured. You seem tired. Things alright with Junko?” Mukuro sat up and turned to face him. “What? Yeah, this isn’t anything to do with her.” She paused, trying to gather her words. “Wolves- wolves are extinct, yeah?” Makoto thought for a second, before nodding. “Think so, yeah. Certainly can’t think of a time I’ve heard of them, except as something historically or from places like America.”

“I think I saw a wolf. A big one.” Makoto nodded. “Oh?” Mukuro continued, “Yeah. Just a bit off campus. Ran past me towards the school, but when I turned around, it was gone.” She hung her head. “So now I feel like I’m losing my mind or something.” Makoto shook his head. “I don’t think it’s that. I’m sure you saw something. Maybe there really was a wolf?” Mukuro shook her head. “This far into the city? Maybe if we were in a more rural part of the prefecture, but how could a wolf appear in the middle of an area like this out of nowhere with no one but me seeing it.” Makoto shrugged. “Maybe you aren’t the first person to see it. Try reporting it.” “Where?” Makoto shrugged again. “I don’t know. Ask a teacher or something, I think.”

The school bell rang. Mukuro stood up. “We should go.” Before Makoto could stand up, Mukuro leaned down and kissed him on the cheek. “Thanks for talking to me. This helped.” Makoto smiled, but before he could respond, Mukuro left, hurrying to class.

The rest of the day passed without much note. The morning’s events weighed on Mukuro and never left the back of her mind, but she did her best to focus on class instead. Between breaks, she split her time between Makoto and Junko, as per usual. It was only once the final school bell rang that she broke from usual patterns. She sent Junko a text telling her there would be a delay, then headed to the front office.

“Um… Excuse me?” The secretary looked up from her computer. “Yes?” Mukuro fidgeted nervously. “I… I need help getting directed to something. I have something I need to report.” The secretary nodded and turned to look at Mukuro. “What is it? I’ll try and direct you to the right department.” Mukuro bit her lip. “I saw- I saw a wolf, before school. Not on campus, but just nearby.” The secretary sighed. “We don’t have a department for students wanting to tell made-up stories. I promise you, you did not see a wolf.” Mukuro shook her head. “That’s what I thought, why I didn’t report it in the morning, but I know what I saw.” The secretary rolled her eyes. “Do you have any proof you saw an animal that’s been extinct for more than a hundred years? Or should I just take your word for it?” Mukuro tried to explain herself, but found she couldn’t. The secretary glared. “So are you going to go away now?” Exasperated and disappointed, Mukuro nodded.

She turned around, but as she left the front office, she found herself face to face with another student. The two collided and fell back, apart from each other. Mukuro gathered herself and stood up. The other student was still laying on the ground. “Are you okay? Are you hurt?” The reply was muffled. “I'm alright.” The figure slowly stood up, revealing itself to be an upperclassman. An upperclassman that Mukuro had never talked to before or even knew the name of, but still, an upperclassman. Satisfied, Mukuro brushed past him, ready to reunite with her sister and return home. However, she was interrupted.

“Hey, this might be an odd question, but have you seen a wolf around campus? I saw one this morning, but no one else did and I'm worried that I'm going insane.” The boy laughed. “Well, more insane.” Mukuro stared at him. “I… You're not fucking with me?” The boy laughed again. “Why would I be?” Mukuro took out her phone. “Give me a second, then we'll talk.”

After she contacted Junko, telling her to go home without her, the pair made their way up through the school building until they were at the roof, the same place Mukuro had first seen the wolf in the early morning. The pair sat down in the shade and faced each other. The boy was the first to speak. “I'm Nagito, by the way. Nagito Komaeda.” He extended a hand to her. She stared for a second, before reaching out and shaking it. “Mukuro Ikusaba.” She paused. “You said you saw a wolf? Where?” Nagito gestured vaguely. “Behind the school, during lunch. Was out there alone. Did you see it too?” Mukuro nodded. “I first saw it before school. I was up here waiting for my boyfriend when I saw it a couple hundred feet away from campus,” She pointed in a direction. “That way. I decided to check this out myself and came face to face with it. I was afraid it would attack me, but it just ran off after a couple minutes. I tried to not think much of it, but my boyfriend said I should report it. I tried to do that after school, but got brushed off instead.” Nagito nodded along. “Alright, alright. How big was the wolf? Taller than you? About that height?” Mukuro nodded. “We saw the same wolf, unless there's multiple freakishly large wolves roaming around Kyoto.” He chuckled. “Now here's the part where I sound really crazy: did the wolf say anything to you?” 

Mukuro tilted her head quizzically. “Say… anything? Like, words? Wolves can't talk.” Nagito shrugged. “They also don't show up in Kyoto out of nowhere when they've been extinct for a century. Suffice to say this wolf is a bit weird. And at that point, why couldn't it talk? So did it?” Mukuro shrugged. “What do you mean by ‘talk’? I did hear a voice, but the wolf never opened its mouth.” Nagito got excited. “Yeah that's exactly what I mean! When it saw me, it said something along the lines of ‘you, too’, before running off.” “It said even less to me. Just ‘Another?’, before, as you say, running off.”

“Interesting, interesting.”

Mukuro and Nagito turned. Unbeknownst to them, another student had snuck up alongside them. Her school uniform was not one worn by students of this school, but instead a local middle school. As if that wasn't enough to make her stand out, she was wearing black gloves, despite the summer heat. Unlike the other two, she was crouching down, as if ready to stand again soon. It was unclear how long she had been there.

“Who the fuck are you?” Mukuro glared at Nagito and gave her own introduction. “I’m Mukuro Ikusaba.” The girl waved again and smiled. “Hello, Miss Ikusaba. I’m Ougi Oshino. You two seem to be having a very interesting conversation!” Mukuro sighed. “And how long were you listening in on this conversation?” Ougi stood up and stretched. “Long enough. I know more about this wolf, if you want to hear it.” She turned around and started walking away, then gestured to the two “C’mon. Besides, it’s just  _ sweltering _ up here. Follow me.” Then she vanished around the corner.

The pair looked at each other. Nagito gave a tired shrug and started standing up. “Might as well. Worst comes to worst, we’re wasting our time. Don’t know much about you, but my time is worthless.” He, too, vanished behind the corner. A second later, Mukuro did the same. She followed and found the two standing just inside, at the top of the stairs.

The now-trio made their way downstairs, following Ougi. She led them through the halls and across campus until she came to a door in a far-off corner. “Here.” Mukuro blinked. “This… is a broom closet?” Ougi shook her head. “Then it has to be a boiler room.” Ougi shook her head again. “Then I have no idea what it could be. There's not enough space here for this to be anything besides a tiny closet.” Ougi giggled and pointed at the sign. “Miss Ikusaba, as you can clearly see, this is our esteemed school's Folklore Research Club, of which I am a member.” She knocked on the door, then opened it for the others to see.

It was an ordinary club room. A bit on the smaller end, but it didn't stand out in that regard. A few students were sitting around, either talking amongst themselves or reading books. Shelves lined the walls and towards the back was a computer. Blackout curtains covered all the windows. Despite its oddities, the room couldn't be said to be abnormal.

Ougi walked over to a nearby shelf and gestured for Mukuro and Nagito to take a seat. They had to sit there for several minutes before Ougi returned, sitting across the table from them. She opened the book and started flipping through pages. “So! A wolf you say. I know a number of wolves, and I can tell you more, but I need details to narrow it down first. How big was it?” Nagito shrugged. “About as tall as me.” Ougi continued flipping, within a more localized section. “Color?” Mukuro answered that question. “Dark gray?” The section got smaller. “Did it glow?” Nagito stared quizzically, but answered anyway. “No.” More flipping. “Did it attack you?” Mukuro shook her head. “Nope.” Ougi stopped flipping through pages and marked two in particular. “Did it speak to you?” The two shook their heads in rough synchronization. “Then I've got your wolf!” She opened to one of the pages she had marked.

“This is a pretty obscure oddity. The effects take some time to settle as well, which is how you two haven't realized it yet. It's name is the Ketsugou Okami, or the bonding wolf. It shows up to pairs and, well, bonds them. You'll figure out more about that later, so I feel like I can skim that part. Apparently it's pretty uncertain how long this will last, between a few months and a number of years. Nothing you can do to work around it, either. Thankfully, it doesn't seem particularly nasty as far as oddities go. Once you adjust to it, I'm sure you'll get by fine.” She slammed the book closed.

“What?”

The middle schooler’s explanation fell on deaf ears. Mukuro picked up where Komaeda left off. “I'm sorry, Oshino-” “Oh please, call me Ougi.” “But I'm afraid to say I understood little of that. Could you please explain?” Ougi tilted her head slightly. “I said a lot of words there, so could you clarify what you need me to explain?” Mukuro sighed. “Fine. What's an oddity? What were the effects you mentioned? Why would seeing a wolf have effects on us? What do you mean it has a name? You say ‘it’ can last years, but what is ‘it’? And why are you here if you're a middle schooler?”

Ougi smiled. “Oddities!” She wrapped her hands into a fist and rested her chin on that. “I assume you're unfamiliar with them. They're the folklore this club researches, myths and legends made real. They keep their distance from humans, but meetings are known to happen, and those meetings rarely come to pass without the human or humans in question coming away different. The effects that oddities can have range from life changing,” She gestured to a dark-skinned first-year, one Mukuro recognized, sitting in the corner. “To temporary effects that can be dealt with,” She gestured again, this time to a pair of second year students, this time ones that Nagito recognized. “Or even effects that can't be said to be life changing, but also cannot be dispelled.” She gestured to another first-year, this time one they both recognized as a member of the school basketball team. “And those are just some broad categories I made up on the spot. Truth be told, oddities are each so unique that attempting to categorize them like that is futile. Comparing this oddity to anything that the club has encountered before is difficult. Perhaps it could be compared to Miss Suruga’s case, but I assume the nature of the affliction is quite different. The effects are something I would really like to see you discover on your own, so I’ll be mum on that for now. As for why I'm here despite the fact that I won't be attending this school for over six months, that's pretty simple. My flighty uncle runs the club, so I've taken to attending, even when he isn't here.”

She smiled and leaned back in her seat. From the other side of the table, one of the second-years she had gestured to during the lecture turned and sighed. “Ougi, you really shouldn’t play with them like that.” Another second-year, who had on her phone until now, leaned over. “Yeah, plus Ibuki is bored. She wants to hear it!” Ougi groaned and sank a little in her chair. “Fine.” She opened the book back up the page still left marked. “Ketsugou Okami. Bonding wolf. It shows up to pairs of people, typically outcasts like you two look to be, and, well, bonds them. Try as hard as you want, but until the effect wears off, you’ll find yourselves not only connected, but drawn together. Not quite the red string of fate, but perhaps more akin to the fetters of Fenrir.” She smirked. “There. I explained it. Happy?” Mukuro shook her head. “Not particularly. This seems vague. Besides the idea that Komaeda and I will be drawn together, what does this mean for us? Is this just limited to simple coincidence?”

Ougi wiggled finger and pressed it down on the page, then turned it around to face the two wolf-stricken students. “It bonds you. If it hasn’t yet, soon a mental connection between the two of you will develop. Telepathy, if you will.”

Both Nagito and Mukuro sat there, shocked, for several seconds. As they recovered, it was Mukuro who addressed what Ougi had said. “Oshino,” “Please, call me Ougi.” “What do you mean by telepathy.” She shrugged dismissively. “Telepathy? Y’know? Like mind reading, except in this case, it’s a two way call.”

The pair glanced at each other, then back to Ougi. “Can you tell us any more than that?” Ougi shrugged at Mukuro’s question. “Not really. I've told you what the book says. You'll find the rest out on your own.”

Nagito sighed. “This seems bothersome.” Mukuro leaned forward. “Would you be able to find anything else about this? Any more information? Anything that could help us?” Ougi shook her head. “I already told you, no. Maybe if I dig deeper, I could find some sort of extant source, but that would take time on my part.”

Nagito stood. “Well, if we're done here, then I'm going home.” As he turned around, Ougi waved, her sleeve flapping slightly as he did.

“Goodbye! Can't wait to see you again tomorrow.” Nagito groaned and shook his head. “Nope, not happening. You told us what happened, so now I'm leaving. This club isn't really my thing, so I don't see why I'd come back.” He waved back, then turned to the door and left.

Mukuro shrugged. “I can stay a while longer. What is this club, anyway?” She glanced around, both at the shelves and the covered windows. Ougi gestured.

“I already told you, this is the Folklore Research Club. We research folklore.” Mukuro nodded, then glanced at the other students across the room. “Well, yeah, but… it doesn't seem that way.”

Ougi shrugged. “There's only so much folklore to research.” She leaned forward and gestured for Mukuro to do the same. She did and Ougi started whispering, “Plus, everyone here has an affliction of some kind akin to yours. I suggest you talk to them. Maybe that can give you an idea of what you're in for.”

Mukuro nodded and glanced over at the other students in the room. It was a mix of people she recognized and people she didn't. From the former group, there were a few classmates of hers. However, instead of walking over and engaging in conversation with them, she shook her head. “I'd rather not.”

Ougi shrugged. “Well, that's fine too. We have a fine library here, so maybe you can read around and you'll find something about this wolf that I missed earlier. Or if not, you learn more about oddities as a whole. Knowledge never hurts, except when it does.” Mukuro nodded.

“I think that suits me better.” She turned around and faced the bookshelf, then picked out a book with a weathered spine, where it read  _ Semi-Aquatic Sea Mammals of Southern Hokkaido _ . Mukuro sat back down and laid the book on the table. Ougi glanced over. “Oh, that one's interesting.” 

Without looking up, Mukuro nodded and cracked the book open. “The title seemed awfully specific, which caught my eye.” She started reading, but after a couple minutes, leaned back and sighed. The book was clearly quite old, with its use of ancient, outdated kanji that Mukuro suspected might not have ever been in use. Despite the descriptive title, the book instead seemed to be about yokai tales from Shikoku. Still, it was interesting enough that Mukuro kept reading.

Before long, one of the students from the other side of the room stood up and left. She was followed a few minutes later by another, and shortly after that, a third. Mukuro, picking up on the mood, took note of the page she was on and returned the book to the shelf. She waved to Ougi as she walked out the door.

Once on the other side, she turned around. The room looked as it had before, crammed in the corner with barely enough space for a broom closet, let alone a club room. Rather than try to figure out how it worked, Mukuro left. She sent Junko a text, telling her she would be home soon. She walked slowly the whole way home, letting the day's events sink in. The middle schooler’s words seemed implausible, but when the experiences she knew she had experienced were as unlikely as the stories she had read, it became difficult to tell where reality began and ended.

“...”

Mukuro stopped. She had heard something, or maybe even someone. It was indiscernible. Mukuro braced herself and surveyed the area around her. It seemed empty.

“...kawa…”

It happened again, and this time she could make out a word, or at least a fragment of a word. She called out, “Who's there?” But got no reply.

“...tomorrow?”

A third voice and by now the voice was becoming distinct.

“Komaeda?” Mukuro called out once more, but was again met with silence. She sighed and hung her head. She concluded she must just be hearing things. She started walking again, but was quickly stopped when she heard the voice in her head again.

“...Mukuro?”

She nodded, then froze. Remembering Ougi’s words from earlier, she took a second to gather herself, then thought. “Yes? Komaeda? Where are you?” Quickly, another response came. “I'm at home. My home. Where are you?”

“I'm not far from school. Only just left, so I'm still on my way home. Um. I guess this is the telepathy that Oshino mentioned.” 

“Yeah, I guess so.” There was a pause, then he continued. “Well, how do we turn this off?” Mukuro thought for a second before replying, “Well, are you hearing every thought that's going through my head right now?”

“Unless you've been completely without thought this whole time, no, I am not. I assume the same is true for you.”

Mukuro nodded, before realizing that Nagito wouldn't have a means of seeing that. That led her to realize that she was standing in the middle of the empty street, where she had first stopped minutes prior. She hurried over to the sidewalk and began walking along the route home again.

“Right. I can only hear the thoughts that are addressed to me. Although… when you first became audible, it sounded like you were saying something about a river? What was that about?”

“River…? Oh, Hanekawa. My girlfriend.”

“You have a girlfriend?”

“Yeah, she's a girl in my class. Why is that surprising to you?”

“If I'm being frank, you come off to me as someone who would push away any potential romantic prospects.”

“Wow, thanks. I'm touched. Anyway, the reason why she was on the mind is that I saw her in that clubroom earlier. She hadn't said anything about that before, but I've always known her to stay after school for class president stuff. She seemed to be focusing on that, which is why I didn't say anything on the subject.”

“Was wondering about that. Did you at least get in touch with her after?”

“Was just thinking about that when you decided to chime in, actually.”

“And have you done that yet?”

“Nope. Busy finishing homework.”

“Before talking to your girlfriend after you saw her in person and didn't talk to her then?”

“Yeah? We were both busy, because in case you somehow forgot, we've been cursed by some magic wolf and some middle schooler was giving us a lecture.”

“And you didn't say hi or anything afterwards?”

“She was busy.”

“Dude.”

“Yeah? I don't think I did anything wrong here. Maybe you're weird.”

“Maybe you don't get women.”

“Cool, then when my girlfriend decides to break up with me because I'm apparently such a horrendous wretch, I'll find a boy to date instead.”

Mukuro blinked. In the course of the conversation, she had walked the rest of the way home and now stood at her front door. She shook her head in an attempt to clear her mind. “I'm going. I need to deal with stuff at home.”

“And yet you can't sympathize with my situation?”

Mukuro rolled her eyes and opened the door, stepping inside. She called out to Junko and got no reply. Outside, the sun was beginning to dip below the horizon. Dinner would need to be started soon, in addition to a number of other household chores she usually had done by this time. She gathered both her and Junko's laundry and turned on the machine, then made her way to the kitchen.

“What should I make for dinner?”

“What, are you asking me?”

“Yeah, I can't really decide.”

“Well, you seem to be adjusting to this rather quickly.”

“I’ve always been accommodating. Family stuff really pushed that on me as a kid, but I don’t think this is any more to adjust to than whatever my sister drags me into.”

“Suppose that’s fair. I certainly have my own experience with having to adjust quickly. Anyway, you should make a wagyu steak.”

“Dude wtf. You think I can afford that?”

“Well, ‘what should I make for dinner?’ is a very broad question, so what were you expecting?”

“Dunno. Hey wait, I wanna try a thing.”

Mukuro snapped back to reality and opened the fridge. She studied what was inside, then stepped back. After a second of thought, she tried sending that mental image to Nagito.

“Did that work?”

There was a pause of several seconds before another thought came.

“Clever. I suppose if this is sharing thoughts, then there's no reason why that wouldn't work. Anyway, I don't know, make curry or something.”

“Alright, that works.”

“Did you really need me for this?”

“It was better than asking my sister.”

Mukuro grabbed things from around the kitchen and started cooking. It didn't take long and when she was done, she set the table and walked up stairs.

“Hey Junko, dinner?” A few seconds passed before she heard some sounds from the other side of the bedroom door. “Be right out in a sec.” Mukuro nodded to herself, satisfied, then turned around and walked back downstairs. Several minutes later, Junko hurried down the stairs and took her seat.

Several minutes later, when they were done and Junko was back in her room, Mukuro began cleaning up. It was an idle task and it didn't take her long to finish, but once she was done, she had a number of other tasks to deal with. Usually those would already be dealt with, but since she had stayed at school later than usual, she hadn't had the time. By the time she was able to finally retire to her room, it was late.

“Are you going to keep avoiding the club like you did today? I enjoyed my time there, so I'll probably keep going back.”

“I have no idea. I need to talk to Hanekawa about this, first. She hasn't talked to me about this before, so I don't know why she would be there.”

“An oddity affliction, I assume.”

“Obviously, yes. But I want to talk to her about this tomorrow. If that goes well, then sure, maybe I could see myself becoming a regular. All the same, this sort of thing isn't my speed. I've always been a member of the going home club.”

“You think that's why we're like this?”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, I've never been in a club either. I've always stuck on my own. Y'know, I was a bit of a lone wolf, and it sounds like you were too.”

“I'm antisocial. I don't care to think of myself in other terms. I don't like people.”

“You're a lone wolf. The thing is, people have the wrong conception about wolves. Lone wolves aren't honorable or stronger. Wolves are pack creatures and the point is that lone wolves often find themselves in difficult situations, on the part of their loneliness. The strong wolf stays with the pack. So what if the point of the Bonding Wolf is to tie us together and turn us into a wolf pack? Two lone wolves together might not be a pack on their own, but it's a start.”

“But why would this supernatural creature be so kind as to tailor its effects to us? This seems pretty specific.”

“You're thinking about it the wrong way. The effect wasn't tailored to us, we were chosen. It seemed as though it were seeking us out. Find the lone wolves and pair them. Create a new pack.”

“So, what? We talk, we socialize, and that's how this goes away?”

“I'm not sure. I suppose more research needs to be done, but that would make sense. Although, if things never change, never go back to normal, then this might not be the worst way to live life. I'm sure in time it will be something we're so used to that it will feel like it was always part of us.”

“And what if I wanted you to just shut up and let me live in peace.”

“Not every thought comes across. We just don't send each other messages at bad times and there isn't a problem.”

“How do we determine when is and isn't a good time?”

“We'll figure it out. We'll adjust.”

“Can I then say that this isn't a good time?”

“Oh, uh, yeah. Sorry.”

Mukuro blinked. She was sitting at her desk. In her hand was a pencil, but the paper below was as empty as when the conversation had started. Doing her best to put thoughts of wolves and upperclassmen and thoughts out of her mind, she pulled out some notes from her bag and began working on homework.

**Author's Note:**

> 17 WIPs left! wittling this down slowly!
> 
> this was really fun to write except for the fact that it took like three months to write. there's going to be a sort of followup to this soon, cause i love this AU and will always keep writing for it


End file.
